Good bus route maps - examples?

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I'm interested to see people's opinions about what makes a good bus route map. Do people prefer geographic accuracy and correct scale, or simplified but distorted? I feel like bus timetables and route maps are a bit neglected. Post an example or two of what you consider good.

Just to clarify, I mean route map that you'd find in a printed timetable or schedule, not a system map. Here's a few examples to get started.

Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), greater Detroit, MI - I like SMART's corridor-oriented timetables (they group schedules together by shared segments, with up to 2 or 3 routes per timetable) and show all of them on the map.

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The Pittsburgh system map is the most appealing to me. Depicting the bus lines and how they relate to the river helps anchor my understanding of the subject. In contrast, the Atlanta system map and the Detroit system maps are very minimalist and they abstract the geography. Different strokes for different folks.

Are you a Cartographer?

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not sure if i'd call myself a cartographer or not, but i do quite a bit of GIS analysis and mapping. i've been developing my own map format to see if i can come up with a GIS-based geographically accurate design that could be put together in a reasonable amount of time. i'm more of a transit planning analyst by trade than specifically a cartographer.

The Pittsburgh system map is the most appealing to me. Depicting the bus lines and how they relate to the river helps anchor my understanding of the subject. In contrast, the Atlanta system map and the Detroit system maps are very minimalist and they abstract the geography. Different strokes for different folks.

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With a large system like Boston's, a problem for me is that not all routes are equal. I did a couple class projects where I mapped only key routes that are always running every 20 minutes or better. But I only mapped them for the sake of spatial analysis, not in a sensible way that someone trying to get from A to B might need.